DID MOORE DIE A CATHOLIC?

New Zealand Tablet, 30 September 1920, Page 23

DID MOORE DIE A CATHOLIC?

(By Chester A. S. Fazakas, in America.)

Being greatly interested in the articles which appeared in America concerning Tom Moore, the present writer followed out the leads given by Father Me Millan and Mr. Ateridge, and offers the results of his labors to your readers in the hope that they may prove helpful. Most authorities agree that the date of the publication of Moore s Travel# of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Reliywn was 1833, the two, exceptions being the Catholic Encyclopedia and James Burke, who wrote a memoir of Moore in the book of the above title (Chas. Dolman, London, 1853). Burke says that the volume first appeared in 1832, but the Catholic Encyclopedia places the publication in the year 1834. On page 10271, : vol. 17 (1917 edition of Warner’s Library of G///'versed Literature), Thomas Walsh writes: “. . . Sunday after Sunday, though his controversial works in favor of Catholicism would fill many volumes, he (Moore) was to be found in the Anglican church.” Neither Charles Kent nor S. C. Hall, both of whom were intimate friends of Moore, the first-mentioned being a Catholic, suggest anything in their "memoirs” which would tend to substantiate Mr. Walsh’s statement. Douglas Hyde says that Moore was a Catholic (page 127 a, vol. 8, Catholic E ncyclopedia). William M. Rossetti, in a preface to a complete edition of Moore’s poems, says: “. . . Both his parents were Roman Catholics and he was, as a matter of course, brought up in the same religion, and adhered to it—not perhaps, with any extreme zeal—throughout his life.” In an edition of Moore, published by Little, Brown, Boston, 1856, there is an anonymous memoir on page Ixvl., vol. 1, which says; “He wrote the Travels of an Irish Gentleman to prove that salvation was to be found only in the Church of Rome, and that Protestantism was a schism. Yet he had his children brought up in the heretic faith.

He gave his reason for adhering to Catholicism that he had been born in that communion. - '

The Brothers of the Christian Schools, in their English Literature (O'Shea, . 1895), state: "His sons were undutiful and his second (sic) wife made home life unbearable. . . Some over-zealous partisans claim that he died outside the Catholic Church. However, very recent investigations prove the contrary, (the Church) he had defended so valiantly, even if he did fail, at times, in life, to be loyal v to her practices." The entry of the University of Dublin, June 2, 1794, on the other hand, reads: "Thomas Moore, P.Prot." that is Commoner (Pensionarius) Protestant. Did Moore know of this entry ? It may be that Samuel Whyte had the entry made because he was so fond of Moore ; however that may be, it seems certain that Moore himself did not know of such an entry, for he says in a collection of his poems (Lippincott and Co., 1865) : "I was one of the first of the young Helots of the land who hastened to avail themselves of the privilege of being educated in their country's university. . . As I knew well that my showing that I deserved to attain them (the rewards of scholarship

denied Catholics at that time) would most gratify my anxious, mother. . .» Stephen Gwynn, in" his * Life of. Moore (Macmillan, 1905), seems to think that Moore knew nothing of the above entry. See also pages 137138 et seq S. C. Hall, in his "memoir," relates that . • . he (Moore) would ask her to read the Bible . . . that his frequent desire was for a hymn Come to Jesus/ in the refrain of which he always joined and almost his last words were—and they were frequently repeated—' Lean upon God, Bessy, .lean upon God.' " J Another intimate friend, Charles Kent, writes (loetical Work* of Thomas Mooe, Routledge and Sons, London, 1890): "The physician in attendance upon him was Dr. Brabant. The clergyman who occasionally came to his bedside was the neighboring parson the Rev. H. Drury. He (Moore) died as every Catholic heart must grieve to remember, without receiving even one of the last consolations of his own religion. As he passed away without the anointing, the absolution, and the Viaticum, consistently to the last with the Protestant surroundings of the Catholic poet's death-bed, his remains were conveyed to a Protestant burial-ground in the immediate neighborhood of Sloperton."

After weighing all the evidence we must accept Mr. Atteridge's conclusions, but let us hope that God took cognizance of the works as well as the faith, though not over practised, of Moore. Certainly we can accept his Sacred Songs, Travels of an Irish Gentleman, and The Irish Peasant la His Mistress as testimonials to his "faith and goods works."